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'Clueless' or capable, older workers have to adapt to survive

Anne Kreamer, writes about work and home life at her home office in New York, May 19, 2011.

Photograph by: Andrea Mohin
, New York Times

When she was employed at one of the most youth-oriented companies on the planet, Anne Kreamer says there was always an unspoken notion that older workers couldn't possibly tap the zeitgeist of consumers decades their junior. But if talent was turned away, it was never due to age - at least, not officially.

Instead, Kreamer says, mature applicants were typically snubbed at the organization because they didn't "get it" or weren't "a good fit for the culture." The age bias was so subtle, and so nearly impossible to prove, that she doubts the company itself was even conscious of it.

"It masks itself in a lot of different ways," says Kreamer, now a noted author on workplace and ageing issues.

Unveiling that ageism has suddenly become important. For the first time, population data show there are now more Canadians aged 55 to 64 - the age when people customarily leave the workforce - than there are aged 15 to 24, which is when people normally enter the workforce. Experts think the looming labour shortage puts the focus squarely on resolving age-based prejudices within organizations.

The dilemma, however, is that what looks like prejudice may just be practical judgement about the ability of a worker to do a job, or adapt to change.

For instance, Kreamer, author of It's Always Personal: Emotion in the New Workplace, says far too many mature workers are seen by junior staff as reticent to learn new technology, strangers to popular culture, and wary of contemporary methods.

A Hollywood production assistant, for example, blogged last year that older workers are "standing in the way of the future," calling to mind their "inabilities to deal with technology" and dependence on fax machines. "We live in the digital age but work in the stone age," the anonymous PA complained.

On videogame site IGN, a forum-user wrote: "I get the whole thing where their body stops working . . . but I'm a pretty good athlete and sometimes I think they're embellishing just because they want to get some advantages out of being old."

And a staffer at a bank posted: "Why hire employees who can't keep up with youth? Better yet, why pay the younger employees the same wages even though we learn, react, and perform our job better?"

"When I was interviewing for my book, a lot of younger people couldn't believe how 'clueless' some of the older people in the organization were about technology," says Kreamer. "I do feel like the older individual has a deep responsibility not to be the outsider Luddite: set up a Pinterest page, figure out Tumblr, try Instagram. Maybe it fits into your work life and maybe it doesn't, but at least you're not the stereotype of someone grumbling, 'That's a waste of my time.' "

According to Kreamer, who recently unpacked ageism for Harvard Business Review's blog, a huge swath of industries are now skewing toward youth - many as a result of notions about fast-paced, technology-driven environments being best-suited to workers in their 20s and early 30s.

Y Combinator, a major name in start-up funding, reports that the average age of tech founders in which it invests is 26. The National Academy of Sciences shows older workers in the tech sector are three times likelier than younger workers to be downsized. And in a survey by Network World, only about one in eight tech managers aged 30 or younger had hired someone older than 40 the previous year.

Other youth-centric fields include communications, marketing, entertainment, physical labour, sales and certain segments of medicine, which Kreamer notes has a mid-50s "sweet spot" wherein surgeons are thought to peak.

"I'm not sure people necessarily want to go to a doctor who might be developing cataract issues or arthritic tremors," she says dryly.

In a new Ipsos-Reid poll for Postmedia News, half of the respondents agreed with the statement "Older workers are harder to train on new processes and technologies." Among those aged 18 to 34, more than 70 per cent thought this.

Andrew Wister, chair of gerontology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, says cognitive changes associated with ageing typically include slower reaction time, decreased capacity for problem-solving, and diminished ability to recover or learn new information. But he notes that there are also increases in experiential intelligence and a tendency to perform tasks more meticulously.

On the physical side, degeneration often occurs in muscle and bone density, eyesight and hearing. Outside of labour-intensive jobs, however, Wister, a member of the National Seniors Council of Canada, believes none of these "mild, normative" changes should keep people from working, adding that a nimble man in his 70s recently did a brilliant job painting for him.

"Older workers are extremely competent, and have great experience and wisdom from which to draw," says Wister. "We do have some challenges ahead of us. But by that same token, there's nothing I see as a crisis."

Other issues are attitudinal. Don Schepens, who teaches human resources at Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton, notes that older staff can sometimes come across as condescending.

"Sometimes younger people feel a little put upon . . . because somebody who's older working there will say something like, 'Well, when you get older, you'll understand what's going on' or 'You'll get it with a little more experience,' " says Schepens.

"Most workers will resist any attempt to cut their pay or vacation time, even if there's a proportionate cut in the hours worked. The fact is, sometimes the cut in pay has to be even greater than the proportional reduction in hours because responsibilities might have to be reduced at the same time," says Vettese.

"Companies aren't willing to start the discussion because it might be deemed constructive dismissal - and even if it weren't, they aren't optimistic about their chances of getting the pay level, the benefits and the hours worked down to the level they would find acceptable."

Older employees belong to what Linda Duxbury, a Canadian pioneer in organizational health, describes as "the workhorse generation": They value benefits, a good pension and want to be left in peace to get things accomplished. They've also done more than their share for most of their careers - and Duxbury's data suggest Gen X and Y either aren't willing or aren't able to take on the same load once those positions open up.

"It's not going to be a one-to-one exchange. The reality is that it will take three people to replace two boomers," says Duxbury, professor at the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University in Ottawa. "For organizations to survive, they really have to start managing their people a lot differently."

Her research shows about half of boomers are burnt-out and bitter, having grown tired of sacrificing family life for a work culture that has steadily crushed their spirits. But the other 50 per cent are vibrant, willing to put in long hours, and consistent.

"If you've got an engaged boomer, you're not going to get a better employee," says Duxbury. "They're dedicated, hard working, and they've come up through a work environment where only the fit survive."

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Starting Easter Sunday, for at least 11 days, the Georgia Viaduct will be shut down to traffic for several hours a day to accommodate the filming of a Hollywood action flick starring a homegrown star. The shutdowns will take place between April 5 and 16 to film an action sequence for the movie Deadpool, a spinoff of the popular X-Men series, featuring Vancouver-born actor Ryan Reynolds as the titular superhero.